Ok - I have a wannabe Roper Whitney punch that I LOVE. Cheap. Works.
Roper Whitney has the dies to let it cut other shapes than round, but
they only sell to distributors. I have not been able to get them to
tell me a distributor I can contact. anyone know a place that
actually sells the Roper Whitney punch and dies?
Thanks!
Beth Wicker
Three Cats and a Dog Design Studio
bethwicker. com
Beth, I am sitting here icing my knees with nothing better to do but
an internet search about punches and dies ---- how’s this place?
Looks like they have them. I just googled Roper Whitney distributors
and they were on the list.
Hope it helps
Barbara
Oh, Beth, I LOVE my Roper Whitney. I order direct from Roper Whitney,
I don’t know nothing about a distributor. I get to them through their
horrible website. I have bought MANY RW dies sets off Ebay too but
the clearances can be a bit off leaving large burrs (which for the
most part can be removed with a vibratory tumbler). The ones I get
from RW I can specify the clearance I want by telling them what
thickness copper I want to cut. Industrial spec’s include copper and
brass not silver. I even sent them a photo of some of the work I was
doing with their tools, they liked that or at least said they did. At
the very least it’s different from the steel manufacturing work they
make most of their sales for. I also ordered RW dies from
clevelandsteeltool. com and got quotes for some triangle shaped dies.
They were very expensive but I think that is par for custom dies. The
ones I got from them are wonderful though and of course cutting
silver will last for ever.
Sam Patania, Tucson
Hi guys,
Once upon a time, I used RW dies to make coin blanks. (Driven by a
kick press. Nothing you’re even going to think about doing with a
hand press.) If you want flat disks, you can special order the dies
without the little spike in the middle. Just tell them you want the
punch ‘flat for blanking’. Or let them know that the disk is your
part, rather than the hole.
There is also a ‘big brother’ to the normal hand punch. It has a
deeper throat, and can take slightly larger dies.
Rather than being the “#5 Junior” the big one is the “XX” punch.
It’ll go up to 17/32".
The big thing about it is that there’s a bench mount for it. So
it’ll lock to your bench, and you can pull down against the bench
with it. MUCH easier. I used it a lot back when I was doing steel
armor, back when dirt was young, and rocks were soft. I wouldn’t say
going through 14ga steel was easy, but it did it, and I was very
happy to have the bench mount.
FWIW,
Brian
If you type Roper Whitney punches & dies into google, you will find
various industrial sites that carry them. Don’t know if you will find
what you want, but it is worth a shot. Grainger, MSC, people like
that! Hope this helps.
Debbie - in NW PA, where it is cold, cold, cold.
In case new users wonder what the little spike is for, when you mark
out some sheet, you center punch where you want the center of the
hole to be, put the spike in the center punch mark and close the
handles. youll find the hole is where you want it to be.
Hi Ted,
The spike is handy for centering, but the big punch press dies have
it too, even on punches that were never intended to be located by
hand. As I understand it, the spike is to help get the metal moving
in the right direction, so as to make shearing easier. (It causes the
slug to tent down a bit, which seems to help both with clearing the
knockout out of the die throat, and with the shearing itself.)
For whatever that was worth,
Brian
Guess who found a Roper Whitney XX punch at the local Goodwill for
$12.00! Wouldn’t have known what it was except for this thread. It
has the bench mount and is mounted on a piece of plywood and has a
wooden adjustable wall to orient and control the position of the
metal. I love Goodwill. Karen in chilly Toronto